EBERRON: Five Nations (3.5)

Secure your traveling papers and jump aboard the lightning rail as it hurtles across the Five Nations. Once united as the kingdom of Galifar, then sundered by the Last War, Aundair, Breland, the Mournland, Karrnath, and Thrane now enjoy a tenuous peace. Regardless of your destination, ready your weapons, as well as your wits—intrigue, opportunity, risk, and reward await at every stop.

Inside this book, you'll find everything you need to adventure in the mighty kingdoms that form the heart of Khorvaire:

Comprehensive overviews of each kingdom, including its postwar status, government, and economy, as well as important locations, communities, organizations, and NPCs

Detailed, full-color maps of each nation and its capital city

Spells and magic items developed during the Last War

Descriptions of battlefields, ruins, cities, and other notable places

Information for creating characters who hail from each of the Five Nations

New monsters and monster templates

*****

Product History

Five Nations (2005) is a 160-page Eberron supplement for both players and DMs. In it, the heart of Khorvaire is revealed in glorious detail, with comprehensive overviews of each of the Five Nations, full-color maps, plenty of plot hooks and organizations, local color for creating a character from a particular nation, and new prestige classes that exemplify each nation. The result is a wonderful mix of history, travel guide, and rules crunch. It's obviously most useful for those who adventure in Eberron, but the format also serves as a good guide to creating a campaign atlas for your own home campaign (assuming you don't mind filing off some serial numbers).

Plots and Factions. My favorite part of any setting book like this is often the plot hooks it provides. How well does the book inspire fun new plots that I wouldn't have thought to create without its help? Five Nations does well in this regard; the nations have their own section for Plots and Factions, with power groups and dangling plot threads that the DM can grab and run with. Knowing who wants what in each country, and how they're planning on getting it, really helps Khorvaire come alive.

Adventures and Places. A book like this needs to describe fantastical and memorable locations, of course, but the best of its sort then help us to plan adventures there. Five Nations does just that: It comes complete with full color maps and (where appropriate) demographic data on the cities and villages detailed. Encounter charts, such as random rooms in the Floating Towers of Arcanix, combine with outdoor and natural locations to help round things out. It's hard to read these sections and not want to immediately set adventures there.

Classes and Monsters. Instead of combining all new prestige classes and monsters in one section, Five Nations does something interesting by placing relevant monsters and prestige classes in the chapter for the country from which that monster or class hails. Laying the book out this way helps to reinforce that certain threats or professions are local, and it also makes the new rules and game content more interesting by highlighting their relevance to a particular culture or area in the setting.

New prestige classes include Dark Lanterns, Breland's spies and assassins; Knight Phantoms, Aundair's light cavalry that uses phantom steeds; the Cyran Avengers, revenge-obsessed punishers; Bone Knights from Karrnath, patriots who fought alongside the undead; and Silver Pyromancers from Thrane, casting divine-infused fire spells with the blessing of the Silver Flame. Monsters include magebred animals, dragonhawks, steel krakens (which is also a great name for a band), and more.

Overall?Five Nations is indispensable if you're gaming in Eberron and want to know more about the countries where most of the action takes place. If you have your own non-Eberron campaign, Five Nations is still useful as inspiration for creating interlocking, rival countries with a shared history. Either way, it's a fine and solid book that's great fun to read.

About the Creators. Christopher Perkins is a 15-year veteran of Wizards of the Coast and the most prolific adventure writer in Dungeon's history.

Bill Slavicsek is the former Director of Roleplaying Design and Development at Wizards, and is currently a writer and content designer at Zenimax Online Studios.

David Noonan joined WotC in 1998 and worked on more than two dozen books for 3e and 3.5e D&D. You'll also find his work in Paizo's Shackled City Adventure Path. These days, he works for En Masse Entertainment.

About the Product Historian

History and commentary of this product was written by Kevin Kulp, game designer and admin of the independent D&D fansite ENWorld. Please feel free to mail corrections, comments, and additions to kevin.kulp@gmail.com.

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